


Things I Like: a list by Mackenzie Elizabeth Lewis, age 5

by adventurepants



Category: Lost Girl
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-20
Updated: 2014-12-20
Packaged: 2018-03-02 07:39:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2804720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/adventurepants/pseuds/adventurepants
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Did it get better?”</p><p>Mama puts the mixing bowl down and looks at Mackenzie again finally.  Mackenzie is worried that she asked too many questions but Mama is still smiling at her.  “Not the way I thought it would.  But yes.  Much, much better.”</p><p>(Sort-of sequel to <a href="http://archiveofourown.org/works/1364188">how i picked you up and everything changed.)</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	Things I Like: a list by Mackenzie Elizabeth Lewis, age 5

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nextgreatadventure](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nextgreatadventure/gifts).



1\. Grown-up stuff  
2\. The X-Files

Mackenzie is five which means she's basically a woman, but for some reason nobody likes to tell her grown-up stuff except for Grandma Kenzi. Mama says she should enjoy being a kid for as long as she can, but Mackenzie thinks she has enjoyed it plenty and is ready to be a lady, which is why it's lucky that she has Kenzi, who says, “Don't worry, kid. I'm gonna teach you about the world.”

So far, Kenzi has taught her about flirting, which is what grown-ups do when they like each other as more than friends, and about how to know your limit when you're drinking and how sometimes there's a second limit for when you disregard the first one, and how most men are really stupid and that she's lucky because her daddy is only sometimes stupid.

Sometimes Kenzi babysits when none of Mackenzie's parents are at home, and they watch grown-up shows together, like The X-Files, which is Mackenzie's favorite. She knows it's really, really grown up because sometimes Kenzi puts her hands over Mackenzie's eyes when something gross is happening.

“I'm big enough!” Mackenzie says. “I won't be scared.”

“This gives me nightmares _now_ ,” Kenzi tells her. “I'm not gonna be responsible for ruining your childhood.”

When Kenzi finally takes her hands away and Mackenzie blinks at the light, Mulder and Scully are doing that flirting thing again and Kenzi is sighing and pulling Mackenzie close to her. “See?” she says. “Mulder's really stupid, because he's a dude, but he loves Scully so much that we always end up forgiving him. They're the perfect love story.”

“I thought my parents were the perfect love story,” Mackenzie says.

Kenzi laughs so hard that Mackenzie can't hear the TV anymore. “Oh my God. Who told you that?”

“Bo Bo,” Mackenzie answers. “She wouldn't lie.”

Kenzi's arms are still around her and the end credits are playing and Mackenzie hopes they can watch another whole episode before Mama gets home.

“Well, it's not exactly a lie,” Kenzi says. “But I think Bo Bo is glossing over some pretty un-perfect stuff that happened before you were born.” 

“You mean like how Mama and Daddy used to be mean to each other and nobody liked Aunt Tamsin?”

Kenzi snorts. “For starters.” She hits play on the next episode. “I guess they have it pretty good now, though,” she says, but her voice is quieter, and Mackenzie knows she's thinking about that person she lost that she doesn't like to talk about.

Mackenzie doesn't really know what to do to make it better, so she just hugs Kenzi and says “Don't be sad.”

Kenzi kisses the top of her head. “Sad? When I'm hanging out with my Little K? Not a chance.”

* 

3\. Parents  
4\. Cookies

Mackenzie's friend Lilly from school has an older brother who hates their parents. “It's just what happens when you're a teenager,” Lilly says. “It's the rules.”

Mackenzie asks Mama about it at home, while Mama mixes ingredients for cookie dough because Mackenzie's been good and she's been asking for cookies for days. She rests her chin in her hands and her elbows on the counter as she watches Mama stir everything in a big bowl. (“Helping,” Aunt Tamsin told her, “means waiting patiently until it's time to lick the spoon.”)

“Well,” Mama says. “A lot of parents and teenagers go through a rough patch.”

“Will we?”

Mama smiles. “I hope not. But if we do, it's okay. Sometimes it's just part of growing up. It doesn't mean that you won't love me anymore, or that I won't love you, even if we fight.”

“I don't wanna fight,” Mackenzie says.

Mama leans over and kisses the top of her head. “I know, baby. We'll try not to.”

“Did you have a rough patch?” Mackenzie asks. “When you were a kid?”

Mama nods, but looks into the mixing bowl instead of at Mackenzie. “I did.” Mama doesn't like to talk about a lot of stuff from before, but sometimes Mackenzie is curious.

“Did it get better?”

Mama puts the mixing bowl down and looks at Mackenzie again finally. Mackenzie is worried that she asked too many questions but Mama is still smiling at her. “Not the way I thought it would. But yes. Much, much better.”

“What do you think Lilly's brother fights with their parents about all the time?”

Aunt Tamsin comes into the kitchen, then. “I don't know Lilly's brother or their parents, but I would assume it's like the great poet Will Smith taught us: Parents just don't understand.”

Mackenzie giggles, and Mama rolls her eyes, but Mama has more than one kind of eyeroll and this is the one she uses when she loves somebody who's not as funny as they think they are.

Bo Bo comes through the door next. “Where are the cookies? You guys have been in here forever.”

Daddy's following her, and he puts his hand on Mama's back. “Come on, Lauren. Bo's starving. She's never eaten a cookie in her life.” His hands are big and Mama's waist is small and Mackenzie sees her lean into the touch before she bumps his hip with her own. “Patience,” she says.

Aunt Tamsin reaches for the spoon and Mama bats her hand away, and then Bo Bo tries, and Mama laughs and grabs the bowl and the spoon and turns away from them and says, “You're worse than Mackenzie.”

Aunt Tamsin leans over and kisses Mackenzie's cheek, because they are always doing that, her parents, showing her they love her in lots of ways besides saying the words (which they say a lot, too.) And showing each other, too, like Daddy's hand on Mama's back, and now, Bo Bo's arm sliding around Aunt Tamsin's waist as she promises, no more spoon-stealing.

Mackenzie doesn't think there's any way she could ever start hating them, even for a little bit.

* 

5\. The Cherry Festival  
6\. Road Trips  
7\. Pie

Mackenzie has a lot of parents but only one grandparent that she's met (Grandma Kenzi,) and one great grandparent (Grandpa Trick,) until Bo Bo says she's been thinking about taking Mackenzie to visit her mom. “I think she'd like to meet her granddaughter,” Bo Bo says.

“How is she doing?” Mama asks, and Bo Bo takes a moment to answer.

“She's all right. She still gets confused sometimes but she's not... she wouldn't... she would be okay, for a visit. I think it might be good for her.”

Mama asks if Bo Bo wants her to come with them, and so does Daddy, and Aunt Tamsin doesn't say much about it but something is happening on her face like maybe she's a little bit worried.

“I don't want to overwhelm her,” Bo Bo says. “What do you think, Mackenzie? Just the two of us, on a road trip together?”

Mackenzie has never been that far away from home without her whole family, but it sounds kind of like an adventure, and she likes those very much. She didn't even know visiting Bo Bo's mom was something they could do. Bo Bo doesn't talk about her human parents a lot (or her fae parents ever) but when she does it sounds like the way they talk about Mackenzie's fish Mr. Bubbles who had to go down the toilet. Like someone you can't see anymore, even if you want to. “Yes,” she says. “I wanna go with you, Bo Bo.”

They leave really early in the morning on road trip day so Mackenzie can sleep through most of the drive, which according to Bo Bo is not how you're supposed to do a road trip, but it was Mama's idea. “You'll like it better this way than if she's awake and asking you how much longer every five minutes,” she says.

Mackenzie's ready to go right back to sleep when they leave home, but she hugs Mama and Daddy and Aunt Tamsin goodbye. Mama tells her to be good and Daddy tells her to keep an eye on Bo Bo, and Aunt Tamsin grins at her and says “Have fun, baby girl. We'll see you tomorrow.”

The rumble of the car puts her to sleep even before the end of the first song on Grandma Kenzi's Road Trip Mix, and when she wakes up, they're not at a house like she thought they would be.

“It's Cherry Festival time,” Bo Bo says as they get out of the car. “We can't possibly do anything else before we go to the Cherry Festival.”

Mackenzie's not sure but she thinks Bo Bo is procrastinating, which is a word that Mama taught her last week when they were discussing how Mackenzie was asked to pick up her toys and she was having a hard time doing it. But she's never been to a cherry festival and it sounds pretty okay. “What do we do here?” she asks.

“Drink cherry wine,” Bo Bo says.

“I'm not allowed to have wine,” Mackenzie says. 

“Well, when you're a kid,” Bo Bo says, lifting Mackenzie into her arms, “Or a mom with a kid, you eat cherry pie.”

They eat _a lot_ of cherry pie, and Mackenzie decides she likes the Cherry Festival. “Can we have a Cherry Festival at home?” she asks, and Bo Bo says she'll see what she can do. Sometimes they see people who know Bo Bo, who call her Beth (Elizabeth comes from Beth, Mackenzie remembers. It's her name and it's Bo Bo's name too and they will always share it.) Bo Bo holds Mackenzie's hand tight, the way they do when they're crossing the street together. The way you hold someone's hand to stay safe.

Bo Bo introduces Mackenzie as her daughter, and her hand smoothes over Mackenzie's hair as they exclaim over her and how precious she is and say she must look like her father. “I look like my Mama,” Mackenzie says, and Bo Bo smiles bright against their confused looks and tells Mackenzie that she's right, she looks exactly like her beautiful Mama.

It's late afternoon by the time they get back into the car and drive to a big white house with a big green yard. This is the house where Bo Bo lived when she was a little girl. It's hard to imagine her mom being little. Bo Bo holds her hand again, tight tight tight, and they stand at the front door and Mackenzie wonders why they don't just ring the doorbell. She almost asks, but then she just leans into Bo Bo's side instead, because one time Daddy told her she makes all of them stronger, and she thinks maybe it will help.

It seems to, because finally Bo Bo lifts the hand not holding Mackenzie's and presses the doorbell, and after the chime they can hear footsteps close to the door. The woman who opens the door doesn't look like Bo Bo, which Mackenzie knows is because Bo Bo didn't come from her tummy, like Mackenzie didn't come from Bo Bo's or Aunt Tamsin's tummies, because there are different kinds of moms but they're all real and important. She looks like she's nice, though. She smiles widely and her eyes get watery and she wraps her arms around Bo Bo's neck, who says “Hi, Mama,” in a soft voice.

“You must be Mackenzie,” she says, when she lets go. “I'm your Grammy Dennis.”

 *

8\. Bedtime Stories  
9\. Bedtime Songs  
10\. Good dreams

Sometimes Mackenzie's parents take turns tucking her in at night and sometimes they all do it together, but Mackenzie thinks her daddy is probably the best at bedtime stories. He carries her into her room on his back because he's really, really strong, and puts her in her bed and tucks the covers in tight, and then sits down on the side of her bed to tell her stories.

“A long time ago, in a far away forest, there lived a fearsome wolf.”

“What was his name?” Mackenzie asks.

“Dyson,” he says.

Mackenzie giggles. “That's your name.”

“That's my name,” he says, smiling.

“You're not fearsome.”

He tickles her sides and she laughs again, squirming away. “Who said this story was about me? Now, the fearsome wolf needed a pack, because wolves like to have packs, and he'd been alone for too many years.”

“Is that why he was fearsome? Because he was lonely?”

“That's part of it,” Daddy says. “You're very smart.”

“I know,” Mackenzie says. “Keep going.”

“Well, the wolf traveled a long, long way, and he met a brave queen, and a genius healer, and...” he pauses, and thinks. “An angel,” he settles on. “With great white wings.” He seems to think this is very funny, she can tell from his eyes.

“And what happened?”

“He wasn't lonely anymore. They filled up parts of him that he didn't even know were empty.”

“Empty like he was missing a kidney? Some people only have one kidney. Because they give away the other one.”

Daddy kisses her forehead. “No, not like missing a kidney. He was empty in his heart.”

“Your heart pumps your blood,” Mackenzie says, and yawns.

“That's right,” he says. “But sometimes even when your heart is pumping your blood and keeping you alive you can feel like something's missing in there.”

“The queen and the healer and the angel were the something missing?”

“They were,” he says. “He didn't even know it.”

“Did they have a baby?” Mackenzie asks, eyes fluttering closed.

“Hey,” Daddy says. “Have you heard this story before?”

“No,” she says, shaking her head, eyes still shut. “I'm just smart.”

“Well you're right,” he says. “They did have a baby. A little girl.”

“Was she a wolf?”

“No.”

“Was she a human?”

“Yes.”

“Then what happened?”

Mackenzie is barely awake, but she can feel Daddy's hand on her face, brushing hair away from her eyes. “He never loved anyone more.”

(Usually, Mackenzie drifts right off to sleep, but sometimes it's hard, and sometimes she stares at the ceiling for what feels like forever, and then she has to get out of bed and wander out of her room to find her parents, still awake. It's always Aunt Tamsin who scoops her up and carries her back to bed, gets her settled, and sings to her.

She doesn't sing at any other time, or for anyone else, and it makes Mackenzie feel extra, extra special. The songs aren't in English and she doesn't know what they mean but Aunt Tamsin's voice is pretty, and she strokes Mackenzie's hair until Mackenzie is so tired she can't even think about opening her eyes. “I love you,” Aunt Tamsin always says when the song is over, and Mackenzie mumbles back, “I love you too.”)

If she's lucky, Mackenzie has nice dreams that she remembers when she wakes up in the morning. Sometimes there's a wolf who runs and runs and runs, because he is free and can do whatever he wants, but he's never alone. Sometimes she dreams about Mr. Bubbles who has lots of fish friends in Fish-halla where he lives now, because he was a good fish and that's where good fish go when they're done living in their tanks. Sometimes she dreams of princesses and good witches who make flowers grow, and superheroes and having wings and flying anywhere she wants to go.

When she wakes up she is just regular Mackenzie again, no wings, no flying, but she's happy anyway. Aunt Tamsin tells her, “You're the happiest person I know,” and Mackenzie knows that means she's very lucky. It's something she hears a lot, something she hears about all of them, when they pick her up and press their foreheads against hers, and tell her, “We're the luckiest family in the world, because we have you.”


End file.
